1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to operation request accepting apparatuses, computer-readable programs, computer-readable storage media, control methods for operation request accepting apparatus, communication systems and operating methods for communication system, and more particularly to an operation request accepting apparatus for accepting an operation request from a remote end (or other party), a computer-readable program for causing a computer to control such an operation request accepting apparatus, a computer-readable storage medium which stores such a computer-readable program, a control method for controlling such an operation request accepting apparatus, a communication system including such an operation request accepting apparatus and a communication apparatus at the remote end, and an operating method for such a communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an operation request accepting apparatus that accepts an operation request from a remote end is used in various fields. One example of such an operation request accepting apparatus is a printer which accepts a print request from a host computer that is connected to the printer via a network, and carries out a print operation in response to the print request.
Among such printers, a printer proposed in a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-94301 reads data from a Secure Digital (SD) memory card when the printer is started.
There are various usages for this printer. For example, in hospitals, newspaper offices and gift shops, a large number of small-scale or compact printers are used to carry out a large amount of printing work. On the other hand, since in general the printer failure is more likely to occur as the amount of printing work increases, the printer failure frequently occurs in the above described environment where the large number of printers are used to carry out the large amount of printing work. When the printer failure occurs, a service engineer of the printer manufacturer is called to fix the printer failure, and it may take several hours for the printer failure to be fixed and the printer to become usable again.
However, depending on the kind of work, the work may be greatly affected when the printer becomes non-usable for a long time due to the printer failure. For example, if the printer for printing prescriptions in a hospital becomes non-usable for a long time due to the printer failure, the patients cannot receive the prescriptions and the hospital work may be greatly confused. In addition, if the printer for printing distributing articles in a newspaper office becomes non-usable for a long time due to the printer failure, it may become impossible to set the articles in the newspaper by the deadline.
In order to cope with such problems, one of the following measures is conventionally taken.
According to the first measure, spare printers are kept in a storage so as to enable quick restoration of the system. The number of spare printers kept in the storage is a predetermined proportion with respect to the number of printers that are normally used in the system. For example, 10 spare printers may be kept in the storage when 100 printers are normally used in the system.
According to the second measure, the output destination is changed from the printer in which the printer failure occurred to another printer that is already connected to the same network. This other printer may be an auxiliary printer which is connected to the network for use when the printer failure occurs but is normally not used or, a printer which is connected to the network and is used for other work. The latter printer may be temporarily used for the work originally intended for the printer in which the printer failure occurred.
However, according to the first measure, it is necessary to replace the original printer in which the printer failure occurred by the spare printer. In addition, in order to operate the spare printer in the same manner as the replaced original printer, it is necessary to make the settings for the communication and printing in the spare printer the same as the settings of the replaced original printer. In most cases, the operations of replacing the original printer by the spare printer and making the settings in the spare printer are carried out by the operator who is actually using the printer to do the work.
However, in many cases, the operator is unfamiliar with the settings of the equipments including the printer. For this reason, the operator must make the settings in the spare printer while reading a manual, and the work may be affected if it takes a long time for the operator to make the required settings. In addition, if the operator makes an erroneous setting in the spare printer, it may become impossible to print on the spare printer, and there is a possibility of affecting the other network equipments.
The replaced original printer in which the printer failure occurred is fixed at another timing, and is usually used as a spare printer or, put back to its original position to replace the spare printer. For this reason, the spare printers that are kept in the storage may have the settings that were previously set. In this case, if the spare printer is connected as it is to the network without changing the setting of the Internet Protocol (IP) address, the address of this spare printer may become identical to that of another network equipment and affect the communication via the network.
Furthermore, even if were possible to make the network communication, the printing may not be carried out correctly if the setting of the emulation language and the like in the spare printer is different from that of the replaced original printer.
In order to eliminate these problems, there is a known tool for automatically making the setting of the emulation language and the like via the network. However, this tool cannot be utilized unless the setting related to the network communication has been made, and for this reason, this tool is insufficient as a cure for these problems.
On the other hand, according to the second measure, if one auxiliary printer is prepared for each printer that is normally used, it becomes necessary to set up the auxiliary printers at a large number of locations and the cost of the system increases due to the cost of the auxiliary printers which must be provided additionally. In addition, if the printer that is normally used for the other work is temporarily used for the work originally intended for the printer in which the printer failure occurred, the print-outs of the printer become a mixture of two different works, and confusion may be generated in the work unless the originally intended work of this printer is stopped, for example.
Moreover, when changing the output destination from the printer in which the printer failure occurred to another printer that is already connected to the same network, it is necessary to also change the settings of the application in the host computer. In most cases, the change in the settings of the application in the host computer is also made by the operator who is actually using the printer to do the work. However, in many cases, the operator is unfamiliar with the settings of the application in the host computer, and if the operator makes an erroneous setting of the application in the host computer, such as setting an erroneous output destination, the intended work may be stopped for a long time.
The problems described above are not limited to printers, and are similarly generated in operation request accepting apparatuses which accept an operation request from a remote end and are used under various and severe conditions.